Recommendations Outline Best Ways to Integrate Primary and Oral Health Care
Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Dentistry and the University of North Carolina School of Dentistry and Gillings School of Global Public Health have issued recommendations for improving the integration of primary and oral health care.
Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Dentistry and the University of North Carolina School of Dentistry and Gillings School of Global Public Health have issued recommendations for improving the integration of primary and oral health care. The overarching goal is to raise awareness among policymakers, clinicians, educators and health researchers about the collective benefits achieved through such integration. Commissioned by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Roundtable on Health Literacy, the paper, “Integrating Oral Health, Primary Care, and Health Literacy: Considerations for Health Professional Practice, Education and Policy,” reports that integration of primary and oral health care is in its infancy. The authors also outline 21 recommendations for effectively achieving this goal.
Among the recommendations are to apply a comprehensive framework that includes integration theory, oral health and primary care into practice, education, research and policymaking, and to encourage oral health literacy at all levels. The authors also suggest prioritizing oral health promotion and disease prevention, and exploring ways to establish formal collaboration and referral networks among health care providers. They further recommend the development of quality-of-care metrics that track the degree of integration between primary and oral health care.
From Decisions in Dentistry. April 2018;4(4):10.
